Aoshi
Aoshi sat down across from Misao, as before, catching a glimpse of a slim black-haired boy going back to sit with his group. "What did you speak with him about?" he asked, sipping his tea.
Misao leaned back smiling. "Oh, Soujiro-kun was just-" she cut herself off as Aoshi seemed to choke.
Regaining his composure, Aoshi cleared his throat. "…Do you know him?" he asked carefully. Such familiarity all of a sudden.
"I just met him!" Misao said with a grin. "Real funny guy."
His eyebrow twitched. "…Really." He said. "However funny he may be, I would think it best not to engage with him. It seems that the company he keeps is questionable, to say the least." Aoshi looked at the simpering woman? sitting between the increasingly awkward blond man with vertical hair and a hulking, massive man with deep-set eyes and a very apathetic expression as Soujiro spoke to them. "…Do not trust him." He said at length.
Sea-green eyes narrowed and an eyebrow was raised. "What's that supposed to mean, Aoshi-sama?" she asked. "You think he works for like, Shishio or something?" incredulity entered her tone with the last statement.
"That is actually very possible."
"Hu-uh?" She stared at him. "But he's my size and seems nice even though he's kinda weird…" Misao trailed off, realizing she wasn't proving her point.
Aoshi raised an eyebrow. "Being your size is no indication of anything – as you yourself prove. And seeming nice is something that people do even when they are not, in fact, nice."
"I won't trust him." Misao said, seeming a little put out, drinking some orange juice. "But if he is somebody to do with Shishio, I might find out something interesting if I hang out with him." She added.
Does she like him or something? Aoshi wondered skeptically. Was she not trained better than that? But then again, he may be too charming for anyone to handle… Ugh. I am thinking of useless things and getting nowhere, he admonished himself. Out loud, he said. "Saitou seems to have taken a great interest in Heishin's body." He said.
Misao's eyes narrowed and she rose from the slump in her chair, back straight – alert. "Does he suspect us?"
"Not that I am aware of." Aoshi said. "He has been staring and staring and pacing around that suite for a very long time now." He looked back at the door. "I would not be surprised if he is still there now."
She shivered in response to that. "There's something that makes me very uneasy about him, besides him being who he is, you know? He seems hungry. Starved for action." She drank a little more orange juice, looking into the distance. "…In this rigid era of Prohibition where we have to tiptoe around even drinking a bottle of booze… It's starving him as well as us – even though he works for the guys what started it."
Aoshi gently looked at her. "Look on the bright side." He said. "At least we can make even more money than ever off of selling less of our wine than ever." Misao brightened a little at that. He continued. "The system was weak and corrupted from the start. This Prohibition will not last for more than five years from now, mark my words. I would say even less."
She grinned and chugged her orange juice as he finished the rest of the tea in his cup. "I'm just gonna say 'hi' to Himura ad Kaoru-san!" she said, jumping up.
He nodded and waved a staff member over for a refill. The man seemed pale and his hands shook as he held the teapot. Aoshi raised an eyebrow as he caught the man full-out staring at him. "Is there something the matter?"
The man chewed on his lip nervously. "Beggin' your pardon, sir and meanin' no disrespect, sir…" he said tremulously. "B-but how can ye stand it, sittin' and drinkin' tea on the same train as a murdered man?"
Aoshi took a sip of tea. "…May I ask you something also?" he asked coolly. "If you think in this way, what do you think out and about on the streets?"
"S-sir?"
"Any one of the buildings you pass may have had a great many worse things than murder happen in them. A man you pass on the street may be a murderer. A man whom you may bump shoulders with, crossing the road, he may be fated to die by another's had as soon as he turns the corner." Aoshi said all that flatly. "…Anyone of the passengers on this train might in fact be the perpetrator of this particular crime. I doubt you will be affected in any way, however. I advise you not to worry."
The waiter's hands shook as he received his tip. "…Thanks sir… I think…"
As the waiter departed, Aoshi watched lazily as Misao chatted cheerfully with the Himura family, her wide grin and cheerful laugh somehow lifting the mood of the occupants of the dining car as others filed in. His eyes were sad, however, as he looked at her. It's my fault that she's like this. She had just killed a man and yet she can still laugh because she's used to it. He gritted his teeth – then took a breath and resumed his neutral expression.
He stood up. We should leave before that Saitou shows up. It would be annoying. With that thought, he made his way over to Misao and greeting the Himura family, extricating her from their small-talk.
Kenshin had smiled at him, still guarded, but he couldn't blame the guy – Aoshi was about to pull a gun on him just last night. "Hello, Aoshi."
"Himura." He nodded. He nodded to the rest of the family.
Misao smiled up at him. "You wanna leave already?" she asked.
"There is someone we would like to avoid meeting." He said quietly.
She got his drift immediately and they excused themselves.
In their compartment Aoshi sat with a book in his hands as Misao lay on her seat – changing positions from weird to weirder. First, she simply lay on her back, then got bored and lay on her stomach, then her side. She then hung backwards off the seat with her legs up against the wall. Aoshi watched with varying degrees of amusement over the top of his book.
She noticed him watching and smiled. "D'you think that Saitou's gonna come and bang down our door in a few hours or so?"
He shrugged. "Who knows. I don't think so – but we could be underestimating him." Aoshi clicked his tongue. "And he is exactly the type of person not to underestimate."
"Hm." Misao gave a noncommittal grunt and twisted so that she was laying with her legs bent over her body and her elbows resting on the floor. "…How come you think that Soujiro guy's up to no good?" she asked finally.
Aoshi's gaze shifted from the pages of his book up to Misao's wide green eyes. "A bad feeling." He shrugged. "It is best to be cautious." Also, he was flirting with Misao. But that's not a reason. No.
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Misao seemed to be getting more and more restless on account of her boundless energy. Aoshi occasionally watched her over the top of his book. Finally, hanging upside-down by her knees from the luggage compartment above the seats, Misao voiced a question. "What're you reading?"
As Aoshi put down his book, Misao's upside-down face in front of his own he almost smiled. "I am reading 'The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire – Second Edition'."
She frowned slightly. "Is it interesting?"
"Rather. It's rather informative also." He tapped the cover with his finger. "The mistakes that people in positions of power made and what it cost them are very interesting. It is a book of 'what to do' at the beginning and 'what not to do' at the end."
Her braid swung as she nodded. "Right. So what do you do?"
"It isn't all about making people fear you so that you can control them more easily. It is that you need to look like you have a reason for everything you do and make people like you – at least, like you more than the other side." He met her eyes. "That is what makes a proficient leader. One does not have to embody good or look like you're not being evil. One needs to be rational."
"Like Aoshi-sama?"
He sighed. "I try."
She grabbed onto the edge of the luggage compartment and swung down, landing on the plush seat next to Aoshi. "…Can I ask you a question?" she asked slowly.
"What about?" Aoshi looked at her, on guard.
Misao looked down and nervously began tapping her fingers on the seat. "About Himura. Who is he really? Last night, why were you so…" she searched for a word and didn't find one.
Aoshi put aside his book and stood up, beginning to pace, stopping at the window, looking at the wheat and corn fields rushing by. "Ten years ago, during the gang war, there was a legendary hitman by the name of Himura Battousai. Nobody knew who he worked for but he killed many, many people. Unlike most guns-for-hire, he actually had a moral code and would not just kill someone for a wad of bills. He had to have a reason – to deal out justice for the sake of the people. He was the most skilled killer out of everybody – his only match was the third division captain of the Shinsengumi – our acquaintance Saitou Hajime."
"W-what…? H-Himura?"
"Yes indeed. The Oniwabanshu under Okina had few run-ins with him – we hired his services once. At that time he was very young, and I was still a child. But an incident occurred and he disappeared. The death of a woman." Aoshi sighed, lighting a cigarette. "Even I do not know much, but it seemed as if he knew the woman – cared for her. Even as a killer-for-hire he had a strange set of ideals. Somehow, the woman's death was a result of his actions – not many people know this – but the cross-shaped scar that the Battousai was known for was her doing."
Misao's eyes were wide, her cheeks pale.
"The incident shocked him so badly that he stopped killing. Somehow, even though he was the most fearsome, the strongest of them all, he refused to kill. And when the government got even more involved and completely slaughtered the Sekihoutai – things quieted down and the war was over. Of course, there were deals made to make it happen, the Sekihoutai was the weakest ad got eliminated because it could be of no use to anyone. Then he just disappeared and was never found again. Rumors had been circling around the underground for years that he had died. But a few years ago – maybe four? I cannot remember exactly – there was a rumor that Udou Jinei went head-to-head with the Battousai in Chicago. Udou died – but not because the Battousai killed him. He shot himself in the head after he lost."
An anxious hand over her mouth, Misao nodded.
"From what I can understand, now the Battousai poses no threat – he does not kill, he does not even have a gun. He hides his scar and he speaks of 'the Battousai' as a different person. However…" Aoshi stared out the window. The cigarette between his fingers snapped as his knuckles whitened. "I cannot trust him that easily."
Rubbing a sleeve over her eyes, Misao sniffed. "That's so sad…"
Aoshi looked at her with slight surprise. "Sad?" he thought a little. "I suppose it is." He took his handkerchief from his jacket pocket and proffered it to her.
Mumbling her thanks, she took it and dabbed at her eyes. "…An'-an' he's such a nice guy too…!" she sniffed. "…Ain't fair. At all."
The world is not fair, Misao. We've both found that out the hard way. But I hope that someday Misao will be able to forget that and live her life in a world that at least pretends to be fair. And I hope I can make that world for her. He reached down and brushed her shoulder with his fingertips. "It is best to be cautious." He said quietly.